This bucket list item has two things in common with last week's #9. It's learning a new language and it's something within my grasp if I reach for it.

OK so technically it's not a language but a transcription of a language. It's a new alphabet for reading English by touch instead of sight. I find this concept more daunting than the Russian Cyrillic alphabet. In fact, I think it would be easier to learn to read Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Russian and Arabic by sight than to learn to read anything by touch.

But learning to read Grade 1 Braille (a one to one correspondence between characters) by sight would probably be a breeze and give me the foundation for proceeding on to reading by touch. Grades 2 and 3 tho are another matter as they involve contractions, abbreviations, personalized shorthand with a letter's braille symbol standing in for common words.

As for writing braille--that's another story altogether. Especially if you mean by using a stylus on paper for that involves punching the dots from the back side in a mirror image of the page--writing the characters backwards and the lines right to left! As if that isn't enough, mistakes are not forgiven. You cannot fix and reuse a letter cell once any of the six dots are punched.

Writing Challenges

Reading Challenges

About Me

Reading, writing, watching story of all kinds is my primary passion. Fiber arts runs a close second and actually plays a role in the other as the stories and reviews I write are often born as my needles or hooks are in motion. The common denominators of them all are imagination and creativity.